Spring is about to burst out in my corner of the world!
Daffodils are dotting the fields with bright yellow blossoms, and one iris bloomed in my yard already. Some irises are so hardy they survive cold and drought and being pushed around by small dozers clearing land for a new home. These guys ended up along the old chain-link fencing in my front yard, and they bloom every year since I’ve lived here. What a joy to celebrate their resilience!
Is spring starting to happen where you live?
Brutal Season
If you’ve been reading the Seasons Mystery Series and waiting for the fourth book to come out, your wait is over. Brutal Season releases on April 10, 2023 in digital, with the paperback soon to follow. What do you think of the cover? I’m thrilled with what the designer did to continue with the basic theme of each book cover, for instant recognition, while making this one different enough to be a fresh look.
Brutal Season is available now for preorder at a discount price of only $1.99. Sadly, you can’t even get a cup of coffee for that price any more. And I do love my coffee.
Use this handy LINK to order your copy.
A bit of trivia about the cover:
The badge used in the design of every cover in the Seasons Mystery Series belongs to a friend of mine who’s a retired Dallas police officer. When Open Season, was first published in hardback by Five Star/Cengage, they couldn’t find an image of a DPD badge that they could use, so my friend let me take a picture of his for the publisher. A character in Brutal Season is named for that friend. In previous Seasons books, characters were named for other police officers and detectives; friends who helped me stay true to the way officers conduct an investigation. I always appreciated the help, and creating a character in the story with their name was just one way to thank them.
Join the Celebration!
The other exciting news this week is the big sale at Smashwords to celebrate Read an Ebook Week 2023 that started yesterday and runs through March 11. All my mysteries there are enrolled in the sale. Open Season will be free and Stalking Season will be deeply discounted. Two of my other mysteries, Doubletake and Boxes for Beds, are also included in the big sale at 50% off the normal price of $2.99 or $3.99
You’ll find the promo here so save the link
MaryannMillerBooks
There was a time when eBooks were a novelty, and now they’re a primary way that many people read, myself included. Do you enjoy eBooks? Do you also “read with your ears” as one friend of mine refers to audio books? Anymore, because of vision problems, I hardly read a paperback or hardback book, even though I have about thirty here on my bookcase waiting to be read. I won’t tell you how many are in my Kindle. 🙂 I listen audio books when pain from trigeminal neuralgia screams at me to find a dark place and close my eyes, and I’d be lost without all these options to satisfy my reading addiction.
Stories have been a major part of my life since I was a kid and would check out four books at a time at the little library on the corner of my street, then return a couple of days later for four more. That was in the winter when I had to work reading for pleasure around school and homework and chores around the house. In the summer I might read all four books in one day.
And I loved the young librarian who took this scraggly little girl under her wing and introduced me to a wide variety of authors and topics to read about. Even steering me to books in the adult section of the library after I’d exhausted most of the titles in the children’s section.
What I’m Doing For Fun
One of my hobbies is working jigsaw puzzles. It’s fun and relaxing. My kids have taken to getting me challenging puzzles to work, and this one is no exception. We’re all cat lovers, and my daughter in law gave me this one for Christmas. I started working on it about a month ago – an hour or so every evening – and have barely made a dent in all the loose pieces.
What are some of your hobbies that bring you joy?
That’s all from me for today, folks. I hope your week starts off well and continues every day. Be safe. Be happy.